Mole

Mole is a very complex sauce utilizing many different ingredients.  It is considered the Mexican national dish, which makes sense considering it has almost every single Mexican ingredient in, I mean take a look:

Growing up, it was very common to have mole from a store-bought mole paste which was prepared by adding more ingredients.  This makes sense considering how time consuming the process can be, it is common to see various mole pastes for sale in markets.  I wanted to make my own mole, preparing each individual ingredient, and balancing the taste out as necessary. I used as my source Diana Kennedy's The Art of Mexican Cooking.  In there she has a recipe for Oaxacan black mole.  I used some of the proportions as a guide but used some different ingredients I've seen also used in mole poblano. 

 

The process is fairly straightforward, it's just the amount that needs to be done. Each ingredient needs to be toasted on a comal.  For spices and the sesame seeds I used a pan, just to make them easier to handle.  Traditionally a metate is used to grind all the ingredients into a paste, but I used a blender, adding just enough liquid at a time to get it going without make it too wet, it should still be a paste.  Some more detailed steps are included in the recipe below.

Mole

10 chiles guajillo
10 chiles ancho
10 chiles pasilla
5 chiles cascabel
4 tomatillos, peeled
4 cloves garlic
1 platano maduro
1/2 cup reserved chile seeds
1/2 cup almonds
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 of a stick of canela
3 allspice berries
4 cloves
6 peppercorns
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp marjoram
2 tsp Mexican oregano
1 tsp thyme
2 tortillas
1 bolillo
1/2 cup lard
salt
1 tablet Mexican chocolate

1-2 tsp sugar
5-6 cups chicken broth

Toasting the ingredients
- Toast all ingredients on a comal until golden brown, except for chocolate.  For small seeds, spices, herbs a sauté pan might work best and heat through until fragrant.
- For chiles specifically: toast ancho and pasilla for 2-3 minutes on each side. Toast guajillo and cascabel for 4-5 minutes to get them very dark/black. Place in a bowl and cover with boiled water for 25 minutes.
- Platano maduro can be griddled skin on, the heat will soften it.
- For the bolillo: heat the lard until hot, fry the bread well on all sides.


Blending the ingredients
- This might need to be done in batches depending on the size of the blender.
- Start with chiles and nuts/seeds as these will get the thickest.  Add just enough water at a time to get the blender going, you may need to push ingredients down.
- Blend the remaining ingredients, except for the chocolate, chicken, and lard.
- At this point, it should be a slightly thinner paste


Finishing the sauce
- Heat the lard in a large pot or dutch oven until very hot.
- In one motion, pour all of the mole over the lard, the idea is to fry the sauce and cook it really well. Stir occasionally for 5 minutes.
- After this point, add the chocolate and stir well so it can break up and get incorporated.
- Add chicken broth and allow this to simmer for an hour, stir frequently to avoid sticking.
- Towards the end, use a stick blender to smooth out the sauce a bit more.

Eating the sauce
Boiled shredded chicken mixed into the sauce what I grew up with and still my go to.  I also really love just the mole over red or white rice, I really love the texture difference.  The more traditional would be turkey meat, but beef and pork also work really well.  It is a fairly versatile sauce given how complex it is.  There is also nothing wrong with just drinking it out of a bowl, right?

Lamb Birria Ramen

Over the weekend, I was very much craving the flavor of birria.  This is usually made with goat marinated in a chile sauce with ingredients such as anchos, garlic, cloves, cinnamon, and thyme.  I wanted to get some of these same flavors, but in ramen form!  I decided to go with lamb as the base to make a broth, but first I put together my chile.

To begin making the sauce, I toasted chile ancho, guajillo and mulato over a comal.  You can see some of the color differences that come up between the different types of chiles. After toasting, I placed the chiles in a bowl and overed with boiled water for 20 minutes.

Next, I began to roast onion, ginger, and garlic on the comal.  Ginger was a new one to me and was something I didn't really use in Mexican cuisine until now.

After the chiles are done, I add everything to a blender along with bay leaves, Mexican oregano, cloves, canela, thyme, marjoram, and apple cider vinegar.  I think the vinegar is a big part of that birria flavor to me, I think it is because you typically want a type of vinegar in the traditional goat marinade to cut the gamey quality. In my case I used lamb and I wanted to get as much flavor out of it as possible.

I seared lamb shoulder in a little bit of olive oil then just let them sit at medium to render as much of the lamb fat out as possible which took several minutes.  I also tried to brown the meat on all sides.

Once there was a nice layer of fat, I cranked up the heat and tossed in my blended salsa.  I "fried" the salsa in the fat for a few minutes until the color darkened.  I stirred occasionally and avoided splatter where I could!  Once I got the color where I liked it, I added a can of beer, beef broth, water, and my lamb bones along with some beef neck bones. I let this boil for several hours before I started putting together the ramen.

I strained my broth and brought to a boil.  To this, I added instant ramen.  I really like how easy it is to use and it definitely has enough of that texture you want from ramen. After the ramen cooks a bit, I placed a layer in a bowl and cracked an egg on top.  Then carefully I ladled boiling broth over the egg to begin cooking it.  Once I had enough broth, I folded noodles over the egg to help further poach it.

To finish the ramen, I added diced onion and chopped cilantro, corn kernels, chopped beef jerky, a couple of pieces of the cooked lamb meat, and a squirt of lime.


The soup was great, the flavors of the spices and chiles went really well with the flavor of the lamb, and I could taste some of the ginger flavor coming out. The broth itself had a nice richness to it from the lamb fat and the thickness of the sauce.  The ingredients on top added a nice crunch and brighter flavors to balance it. It was a hit and I was definitely craving more the next day.

new salsa

The salsa I made yesterday was a hit!  I really love how it came out, it was great with chips and made the perfect vehicle for a guisado de Puerco.  What I did to make this is take the idea  just a regular salsa verde, but adding habaneros for more heat and mulatos for a more earthy complex flavor.   I will be taking pictures and making an update post, but wanted to make sure I jot this down.


1 chile jalapeño
1 chile serrano
1 chile habanero
1 chile guajillo
2 chile mulato
10-12 tomatillos
1 white onion
4 cloves garlic


1 handful cilantro
3 bay leaves
2 big pinches of Mexican oregano
1 tablespoon ground cumin
juice of 1 lime
salt to taste


- Turn the oven up to 500 and place the jalapeño, serrano, habanero, tomatillos, onion and garlic into a baking dish.  You will want to cook this over several minutes in the oven, turning over to get some char on various sides of the vegetables.
- Split the guajillo and mulato in half and remove seeds, placing on top of the already roasting vegetables.  The idea is to get some color on these as well, but they do not take as long, After they get toasted and darken, remove the baking dish and place the dried chiles in a bowl with boiling water, they will steep for at least 15 minutes.
- Once the remaining vegetables have a decent amount of charred parts on many sides, add them to a blender with the remaining ingredients. Once the dried chiles have rehydrated, they can be added to the blender.  Blend everything together, using the steeping liquid to loosen if necessary.  Add additional salt and spices to your preferred taste.

Skillet Corn

Over the weekend, I went to the farmer's market to pick up some vegetables.  I wasn't sure what to get but I saw they had sweet corn.  It seemed a few weeks early, but I love sweet corn and I grabbed some ears in the hopes that it was sweet and not starchy.   Thankfully it was very crisp and sweet so I ate one as is.  Someone suggested I make skillet corn which is something I never heard of.  After making it the first time, I thought of it as really good creamed corn with the kernels still intact and crisp.  It is definitely delicious and I was craving it again tonight.

Most recipes for skillet corn just have it as a side or a simple dish you just eat from a bowl.  I wanted it to be dinner, so I topped it with pico de gallo that I made with tomatoes from the same market, sliced avocado and a poached egg.

I began by removing the kernels from 4 ears of corn.  I set the cobs to the side so that I can scrape the whole surface with a butterknife to get all the corny goodness.

I technically didn't use a skillet, but I did put a few tablespoons of olive oil in a pot.  To this I added about half a small onion, 2 cloves of garlic and half a chile serrano (someone sent me a picture of some jalapeño corn bread and it sounded good).

I then added the corn kernels and cob scrapings to the pot.  I let this cook together on medium high heat for a few minutes, making sure to stir to coat the corn in the mixture.

I then added a tablespoon of flour and mixed it into the corn.  I let this cook together for a few minutes longer before adding water. 

I added about a cup of water, I wanted the corn to be somewhat submerged.  I let this all simmer on low for about 30 minutes.  Some recipes I found said 45, others said 15. I just picked something in between.  I think a reason for a longer cooking time is to get as much corn flavor into the sauce that forms, but I didn't want the corn to get too soft or overcooked.

The acidity and crispness of the pico de gallo was a great contrast to the sweet, slightly creamy corn.  Normal recipes call for butter or bacon to add some richness.  I added the egg with the hope of stirring the yolk into the corn to achieve a similar affect, also because eggs are just really good on things. I added the avocado to add another type of richness to complement the corn and provide another contrast to the pico de gallo.

fried tomatillo salsa

I had some leftover oil in a pan from frying tortillas so I wondered how tomatillos would turn out.  I added onions, garlic, and chile serrano to the pan after frying the tomatillos face down for a couple of minutes.  I then transferred everything to a jar and added cilantro, cumin, oregano, lime juice, salt, and a bay leaf.  I blended with a stick blender until combined.  The tomatillo was still a bit chunky and it came out a bit richer than normal roasted salsa.

Shrimp in coconut tomatillo sauce

I found myself with a few extras yesterday.  Some uncooked shrimp from a party, a can of coconut milk and some leftover tomatillo salsa that was initially meant for chilaquiles.  I wondered what mixing the coconut milk and salsa would taste like so I gave it a shot.  The salsa was made up of tomatillos, onions, garlic, cilantro, lime juice, cumin, oregano and bay leaves.  I added this to a mason jar with coconut milk and shook it up, this is the result.

The rest was simple to make.  I started by sauteeing onions and garlic in a pan before adding the shrimp.  I cooked the shrimp until it was almost cooked through.  I then added the coconut milk/salsa mixture and let it come to a simmer.  I removed the shrimp and left the sauce in the pan to simmer for a couple of more minutes.  I added pumpkin seeds at the last minute for a bit of crunch.  I finished by pouring the sauce over the shrimp.



The sauce was delicious and rich, but the tomatillo and lime also brought some freshness into the dish.  The pumpkin seeds added a nice crunch as well.  I saved some sauce and will be making this again, but perhaps with some cilantro and onion on top.